Introduction

CSchem and CPCB are a pair of programs for designing electronic circuits and laying them out on a printed circuit board. These programs are especially intended for users who may not be full-time electrical engineers, but who occasionally design electronics in the course of their work/study/hobbies. That is not to say that CSchem could not be used to make complex designs, but rather that it will not overcomplicate simple designs.

CSchem: Circuit design (“Schematic capture”)

These leading principles guided CSchem development:

• The user interface should be clean and inviting;

• If you have used Powerpoint or Inkscape, drawing in CSchem should be intuitive.

• Circuits drawn with CSchem should look elegant enough to be included in a scientific paper without external editing, by default, and without special effort.

Here is a screenshot of CSchem while designing a simple opamp circuit:

and here is an example of the circuit for an Arduino-controlled high-intensity triple LED driver, saved in “svg” format from CSchem:

CPCB: Printed circuit board (“PCB”) layout

CPCB was likewise designed to be intuitive for casual users. Yet, out of the box it can export professional-quality “Gerber” files that can be directly sent to PCB manufacturers. Here is a screenshot of CPCB showing a design of a simple PMT amplifier:

CPCB does not have any “auto routing” facilities, but it does have a “verify nets” function that checks whether the traces you drew on the PCB faithfully correspond to the circuit you designed in CSchem. Further, while you work on the PCB layout, CPCB can tell you which components are still missing, and which connections still need to be made. In the screenshot above, one connection is still missing, and CPCB indicates (in blue) to where the pin under the mouse pointer should be attached. Likewise, if you inadvertantly create a short-circuit, CPCB indicates the spurious connections in pink.

Learn more

Position statements

Unsure whether CSchem and CPCB are for you? Read these to find out!

• Position statement: Why use CSchem?
• Position statement: Why use CPCB?

Tutorials

New here? To help you get started with CSchem and CPCB, several tutorials are available.

• Tutorial: Installing CSchem and CPCB on your computer
• Tutorial: Designing your first circuit with CSchem
• Tutorial: Containers and virtual components
• Tutorial: Modifying a circuit
• Tutorial: Laying out your first printed circuit board with CPCB

User guides

For full details on how to use the software, read these.

• User guide: Designing electronic circuits with CSchem
• User guide: Realizing circuits on printed circuit boards using CPCB

Application notes

Useful information for PCB fabrication.

• My procedure for SMT soldering

License information

CSchem and CPCB are free software. Read what that means here:

• License information